CONTEMPORARY IRELAND - A CASE STUDY
Modern Ireland is, in many ways, a microcosm of Western culture itself. Irish identity and meaning have rapidly changed in a period of fewer than 100 years and have tracked the same trajectory of the West overall.
To understand the ideas at the heart of the current upheaval in Western culture, one may analyze the ideas and forces that led to the creation of the Irish Republic, the collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and Ireland’s integration into the technological economy and the European Union.
Studying these changes requires immersion in Irish news, politics, commentary, intellectual circles, spiritual movements, and the arts communities.
Understanding Ireland today is to understand the West today.